|
If there was a method (and I'm not sure there is one, I've looked but can't find a legitimate one) of allowing a druid to make their attacks have magical effects (like flaming, bane, whatever) for a short amount of time, would this violate druidic code? Does magic like that count as "nature magic" since it would allow them to wield the power of the elements, or would it be pushing it?
Creative Director
|
If there was a method (and I'm not sure there is one, I've looked but can't find a legitimate one) of allowing a druid to make their attacks have magical effects (like flaming, bane, whatever) for a short amount of time, would this violate druidic code? Does magic like that count as "nature magic" since it would allow them to wield the power of the elements, or would it be pushing it?
There's spells that do that. Some of them are druid spells, or if they're not, they could be.
In any event, enhancing weapons with magic properties is not against druidic code.
|
Golarion setting specific, divine questions:
1) 2 Clerics, one a cleric of a demigod, the other a cleric of one the major gods of Golarion, both cast Miracle (Very powerful request version). Each asking for exact opposite requests of the other.
Which Miracle would win out?
1a) What if the Miracle request involves the demigod's Portfolio, but not that of the major god?
For example, a request to Kostchtchie (demon lord, portfolio: cold) to freeze a forest, countered by a request to Cayden Cailean (full deity, portfolio: freedom/bravery/wine) to burn the forest?
----------
2) In a similar vein. If 2 Clerics, belongs to deities of Equal Level (For example, both are core deities), casts Miracle (Very powerful request version). Each requesting for exact opposite effects.
In this case, which Miracle would win out?
2a) And would their deities portfolios influence the outcome in such a case too?
Hi james im loving some h.p lovecraft right now..im a newer convert i discovered howard first lol..im about half way through the barnes and nobles giant book of lovecraft..and i own call of cthulhu 5th edition rpg, masks of nyarlathotep, and mansions of madness..
i was wondering if you could recommend a few rpg books that i should get next..
thanks
|
Creative Director
|
Golarion setting specific, divine questions:
1) 2 Clerics, one a cleric of a demigod, the other a cleric of one the major gods of Golarion, both cast Miracle (Very powerful request version). Each asking for exact opposite requests of the other.
Which Miracle would win out?
1a) What if the Miracle request involves the demigod's Portfolio, but not that of the major god?
For example, a request to Kostchtchie (demon lord, portfolio: cold) to freeze a forest, countered by a request to Cayden Cailean (full deity, portfolio: freedom/bravery/wine) to burn the forest?
----------
2) In a similar vein. If 2 Clerics, belongs to deities of Equal Level (For example, both are core deities), casts Miracle (Very powerful request version). Each requesting for exact opposite effects.
In this case, which Miracle would win out?
2a) And would their deities portfolios influence the outcome in such a case too?
1) Whichever one the GM wants to win. A miracle more closely associated with a deity's portfolio/area of concern should be more powerful than one that's not.
1a) See above. Miracles are equally powerful regardless of the deity or source that grants them.
2) See #1 above.
2a) See #2a above.
|
Creative Director
|
Hi james im loving some h.p lovecraft right now..im a newer convert i discovered howard first lol..im about half way through the barnes and nobles giant book of lovecraft..and i own call of cthulhu 5th edition rpg, masks of nyarlathotep, and mansions of madness..
i was wondering if you could recommend a few rpg books that i should get next..
thanks
If you can find a copy, Beyond the Mountains of Madness is one of the best adventures Chaosium has ever published.
The Dreamlands book for the game is cool too.
Malleus Monstrorum is a good choice too.
The most useful ability of the Staff of the Master is probably its ability to expend charges in place of spell level increases on metamagic feats, but each one gives a couple spells of one school (the one it represents mastery of). The example staff is Necromancy, and gives Ray of Enfeeblement, Spectral Hand, and Vampiric Touch (One each from levels 1-3, which I assume would be a pattern), but no examples from other schools are given. What spells would you use for Staves of the Master of other schools (if you have to pick two, illusion and evocation I guess...)? Or would you rather I post ones that I think would fit and you say if you think those are a good or bad fit? Or would it vary between staves, even of the same school?
|
Creative Director
|
The most useful ability of the Staff of the Master is probably its ability to expend charges in place of spell level increases on metamagic feats, but each one gives a couple spells of one school (the one it represents mastery of). The example staff is Necromancy, and gives Ray of Enfeeblement, Spectral Hand, and Vampiric Touch (One each from levels 1-3, which I assume would be a pattern), but no examples from other schools are given. What spells would you use for Staves of the Master of other schools (if you have to pick two, illusion and evocation I guess...)? Or would you rather I post ones that I think would fit and you say if you think those are a good or bad fit? Or would it vary between staves, even of the same school?
I don't see a reason why the spells shouldn't vary from staff to staff, honestly; any three should work as fine as any other.
James which edtion of dreamlands do you recommend..i see theres a newer one..
|
Hey James, this is an awesome thread.
I was wondering if you could clear up a bit of Golarion history for me. Specifically, what's up with the dragons? I've had a people whose knowledge I trust tell me that all the dragons disappeared a long time ago due to some event, but then I just read the ISWG and it mentions dragons a couple times in recent history but not their disappearance. I'm totally confused, and given that dragons are awesome, I'd like to know what their canon is.
|
Creative Director
|
James which edtion of dreamlands do you recommend..i see theres a newer one..
As a general rule, the newer editions of Chaosium's books generally have the most information. That said... and I don't know which edition it was... but one of the more recent editions of Dreamlands had some art that I didn't really like...
|
Couple of unrealated questions:
1) I'm a huge fan of all of your published adventures, and the one I read from Eric Mona (howel of the crrion king) was amazing as well. Any chance of seeing an AP module from either of you anytime in the next couple of years?
2) about mythic play: I noticed that when a story is about "mythic power level" charatcers, then the story tends to be more about the good guys than the bad guys, which is the reversal of the norm I'll try and explain with an example:
a) in "Lord of the Rings", the characters are powerful but not what anyone would call "mythic". They have an impact on the battlefield and a knack to get things done, but stick a sword through any of them and suddenly the fellowship lost another member. And indeed, "Lord of the Rings" is a story focused adventure where a lot of attention is given to the mechinations of evil, and to various minor charcaters.
2) In the "Avengers" movie from this summer, we had a bunch of mythic power level characters running around. I noticed, after watching the movie for a second time, that the plot was flimsy, the bad guy aliens and their plot to rule the earth very generic and boering, and the support cast negligable. Which didn't matter at all, because the main characters were so cool they could carry a movie all on thier own. In an action scene you didn't care about what the bad guy was trying, you just wanted to see the Hulk smash him.
So will this also be true for mythic Pathfinder? if the game is trying to capture the "Mythic" feel, then the focus should be the PCs and how awesome they are, instead of focusing on interactions and story. Will that happen?
1) Alas, no. I prefer not to provide feedback or design advice on things that I'm not paying a freelancer to produce for a print or PDF product, for personal reasons, time-management reasons, and legal reasons. Sorry!
2) I've heard of it, but haven't looked at it because I don't like complicating the damage system of Pathfinder. The current rules for hp work great as far as I'm concerned—if I felt otherwise, I would have pushed to have them changed during design to address the issue, after all...
No worries! I'll just post it in the homebrew section to get some feedback :) That's what it's there for after all.
1) What is your GM "setup?" Do you have any special tools that you use to help you run games besides scratch paper and writing utensils?
2) What do you think your base ability scores in real life?
3) What one magic item would you like to have?
4) Where would you like to live on Golarion?
5) Where would you like a vacation house on Golarion?
James,
Sorry about asking a rules question, but I couldn’t find a good answer.
1)The wild stalker ranger archetype in Ultimate Combat gains rage powers and wild talents that replace the same ranger ability. It that correct? I thought they had to replace different abilities.
2)Does uncanny dodge replace all combat style feats or just the one gained at 2nd level?
3)Unrelated, how do we abbreviate Ultimate Campaign? Do we have to use UCo and UCa?
Thank you
Have you looked at Chaosium's Cthulhu Invictus (ancient Rome) and Cthulhu Dark Ages sourcebooks? Did you like them? Ever run anything in those settings? What is your favorite time frame to set Call of Cthulhu adventures in? I'm a fan of gaslight era.
|
Creative Director
|
Couple of unrealated questions:
1) I'm a huge fan of all of your published adventures, and the one I read from Eric Mona (howel of the crrion king) was amazing as well. Any chance of seeing an AP module from either of you anytime in the next couple of years?
2) about mythic play: I noticed that when a story is about "mythic power level" charatcers, then the story tends to be more about the good guys than the bad guys, which is the reversal of the norm I'll try and explain with an example:
a) in "Lord of the Rings", the characters are powerful but not what anyone would call "mythic". They have an impact on the battlefield and a knack to get things done, but stick a sword through any of them and suddenly the fellowship lost another member. And indeed, "Lord of the Rings" is a story focused adventure where a lot of attention is given to the mechinations of evil, and to various minor charcaters.
2) In the "Avengers" movie from this summer, we had a bunch of mythic power level characters running around. I noticed, after watching the movie for a second time, that the plot was flimsy, the bad guy aliens and their plot to rule the earth very generic and boering, and the support cast negligable. Which didn't matter at all, because the main characters were so cool they could carry a movie all on thier own. In an action scene you didn't care about what the bad guy was trying, you just wanted to see the Hulk smash him.So will this also be true for mythic Pathfinder? if the game is trying to capture the "Mythic" feel, then the focus should be the PCs and how awesome they are, instead of focusing on interactions and story. Will that happen?
1) Thanks for reading them and for the kind words! Erik is, alas, too busy doing publisher stuff these days to have time to write an adventure, but hopefully some day that'll change. And I'm writing part of one of the upcoming Wrath of the Righteous adventures.
2) It's certainly true for Wrath of the Righteous, which is probably the most appropriate adventure path we've yet done for paladins and their ilk. But I don't think that Mythic is necessarily ONLY for the good guys. One of the big plot elements of Wrath is that the demons are getting mythic stuff too. That said, the storyline of Wrath is NOT going to be set aside; it will be pretty front and center. Remember, the big difference between a movie/story and an adventure is that the main characters in an adventure are missing—they're the PCs, which is the one part of the whole we as the writers and publishers have absolutely no control over.
|
Creative Director
|
1) What is your GM "setup?" Do you have any special tools that you use to help you run games besides scratch paper and writing utensils?
2) What do you think your base ability scores in real life?
3) What one magic item would you like to have?
4) Where would you like to live on Golarion?
5) Where would you like a vacation house on Golarion?
1) I have all my campaign notes/adventures in my Kill Dr. Lucky tote bag/briefcase thingy, including note paper, lots of pencils and markers, and the Combat Pad. I use Tact-Tiles and battlemaps and flip mats for combat, and Pathfinder prepaiinted minis for the minis. I play upstairs here at Paizo in our conference room, so all the Paizo books and lots of 3rd party books I might need are right there to be used. The table's a long, thin boardroom conference table. I sit in the middle of one of the longer sides, while the rest of the players sit around the sides and far edge.
2) Mediocre.
3) A ring of wishes.
4) Sandpoint.
5) Kintargo.
|
Creative Director
|
James,
Sorry about asking a rules question, but I couldn’t find a good answer.1)The wild stalker ranger archetype in Ultimate Combat gains rage powers and wild talents that replace the same ranger ability. It that correct? I thought they had to replace different abilities.
2)Does uncanny dodge replace all combat style feats or just the one gained at 2nd level?
3)Unrelated, how do we abbreviate Ultimate Campaign? Do we have to use UCo and UCa?
Thank you
1) Yup. That's a rules forum question.
2) Same.
3) Good question, since we've not yet had to abbreviate it. Dunno yet.
|
Creative Director
|
Have you looked at Chaosium's Cthulhu Invictus (ancient Rome) and Cthulhu Dark Ages sourcebooks? Did you like them? Ever run anything in those settings? What is your favorite time frame to set Call of Cthulhu adventures in? I'm a fan of gaslight era.
I own them all but haven't had a chance to do much more than skim them. They look really fun, but I've not used them yet in a game. My favorite CoC era is the 1920s.
Not a question, but just wanted to post that I am happy you restarted your bigfoot country blog, and frequently check it for new material. Just figured I would mention that since compared to the thread their has been little commenting, but you do have readers!
|
Creative Director
|
Hmm. Looks like my question got lost in the hustle and bustle of the kerfuffle shuffle. Second verse, same as the first: What happened to dragons in Golarion? I've had people tell me they disappeared long ago, but then some material I've come across seems to contradict that.
Nothing happened to Golarion's dragons. They're there, and always have been. They're not really into the "mixing with human society" that you see a lot of in Forgotten Realms or in Dragonlance, but there's plenty of dragons in the Inner Sea region and in our adventures.
|
Creative Director
|
Not a question, but just wanted to post that I am happy you restarted your bigfoot country blog, and frequently check it for new material. Just figured I would mention that since compared to the thread their has been little commenting, but you do have readers!
Thanks!
I was hoping to be able to get a Monster Day post up yesterday, but freelance ended up taking all my writing hours all weekend.
But yeah; great to know folks are reading it!
I had a rogue with uncanny dodge who was surprised attacked by other rogue. He wasn't flanking, and Sneak attack specifically says that it applies when the subject loses their dex bonus to AC, and with uncanny dodge, he didn't lose the dex bonus. So does the sneak attack apply?
|
There WILL be a sexy succubus-type cover character on one of the covers to Wrath of the Righteous, but it won't be this character. And that sexy cover will further be balanced out by the half orc paladin on the cover of the first volume, I suspect.
I don't know...half-orcs seem to be visually appealing to more than a few folks out there. :)
1) I have all my campaign notes/adventures in my Kill Dr. Lucky tote bag/briefcase thingy, including note paper, lots of pencils and markers, and the Combat Pad. I use Tact-Tiles and battlemaps and flip mats for combat, and Pathfinder prepaiinted minis for the minis. I play upstairs here at Paizo in our conference room, so all the Paizo books and lots of 3rd party books I might need are right there to be used. The table's a long, thin boardroom conference table. I sit in the middle of one of the longer sides, while the rest of the players sit around the sides and far edge.2) Mediocre.
3) A ring of wishes.
4) Sandpoint.
5) Kintargo.
That is a sweet setup! And I should have anticipated the ring of wishes answer XP
1) Assuming you've read them, do you like (at least some of) the Dragonlance novels?
If so:
2) Which is your favorite novel?
3) Favorite character?
4) How do you feel about Kender?
Sorry for all the contingent questions.
Unrelated questions:
5) Do you prefer your orcs sympathetic (like in the Warcraft universe) or irredeemably evil or anywhere in between?
6) Are there half-ogres without deformities in Golarion or just the ogrekin?
7) I'm thinking of checking out some Lovecraft. Recommendations on the first story I should read?
|
Creative Director
|
I had a rogue with uncanny dodge who was surprised attacked by other rogue. He wasn't flanking, and Sneak attack specifically says that it applies when the subject loses their dex bonus to AC, and with uncanny dodge, he didn't lose the dex bonus. So does the sneak attack apply?
Yup, your uncanny dodge should have prevented the surprise attack from sneak attacking you.
|
Creative Director
|
| 8 people marked this as a favorite. |
Are the classes meant to be balanced with each other per level or is the fact that most of the time caster beat non-casters a feature rather than a failing.
"Balanced against each other" is something that's important for PVP games. Pathfinder is not a PVP game; it's a cooperative game.
Every class has a different role, and thus "balancing" them against each other is kind of not the point.
The idea of any one class "beating" any one other class is also relatively meaningless, since there are a LOT of different ways a class can excel.
|
Creative Director
|
1) Assuming you've read them, do you like (at least some of) the Dragonlance novels?
If so:
2) Which is your favorite novel?
3) Favorite character?
4) How do you feel about Kender?
Sorry for all the contingent questions.
Unrelated questions:
5) Do you prefer your orcs sympathetic (like in the Warcraft universe) or irredeemably evil or anywhere in between?
6) Are there half-ogres without deformities in Golarion or just the ogrekin?
7) I'm thinking of checking out some Lovecraft. Recommendations on the first story I should read?
1) I really quite liked the first 3 Dragonlance novels a lot. I liked the second 3 pretty well but not as much. Beyond that, I more or less lost interest.
2) The third one; Dragons of Spring Dawning.
3) Laurana.
4) Love them!
5) Evil but with the option of being good if the story's right.
6) Just ogrekin.
7) The Dunwich Horror. It's not his best story, but it's one of the most accessible and one of the ones that's got all the classic tropes in it. His best story is "At the Mountains of Madness," with "The Colour out of Space" coming in at a close second.
Where do you rank "Rats in the Walls" then?
|
Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Where do you rank "Rats in the Walls" then?
Not in the top 10, but probably in the top 15.
My top 10 Lovecraft stories, in no particular order past 1 and 2...
1: At the Mountains of Madness
2: The Colour out of Space
3: The Shadow over Innsmouth
4: The Dunwich Horror
5: The Haunter of the Dark
6: The Whisperer in Darkness
7: Dreams in the Witch House
8: The Thing on the Doorstep
9: The Shadow out of Time
10: The Call of Cthulhu
11: Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath
12: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
13: The Hound
14: The Lurking Fear
15: Pickman's Model
16: The Mound
17: Out of the Aeons
18: The Horror in the Museum
19: Cool Air
20: The Rats in the Walls
So yeah. Somewhere in the top 20.
Looking for some verification on an odd combination. If a human druid took the alternate racial trait eye for talent (ARG), would the benefit apply to multiple animal companions gained through the archetype pack lord (UM)? In addition would the benefit apply to a multiclass druid/wizard's animal companion AND familiar? Thanks!
Two questions regarding outsiders, and one regarding a special ability.
First outsider question: Aside from fallen angels, is it possible for outsiders to change their alignment? For instance, lawful proteans, chaotic arbiters, CG demons and LE archons.
Second outsider question: It seems as though virtually any CR≤2 outsider that's Small or smaller can be used as a familiar. Can you confirm this?
(EDIT: just realized those first two can be connected through my desire to play a magus instead of my usual summoner in PFS. Finesse'd tiefling with a tripurasura familiar? Do want!)
And finally, the ability question. Apparently, vampires can create spawn through energy drain, but nothing in the ability's description says that it can kill or cause Con damage. How does that work?
|
Creative Director
|
Looking for some verification on an odd combination. If a human druid took the alternate racial trait eye for talent (ARG), would the benefit apply to multiple animal companions gained through the archetype pack lord (UM)? In addition would the benefit apply to a multiclass druid/wizard's animal companion AND familiar? Thanks!
That's a good question for the rules forums and a FAQ click.
|
Creative Director
|
Two questions regarding outsiders, and one regarding a special ability.
First outsider question: Aside from fallen angels, is it possible for outsiders to change their alignment? For instance, lawful proteans, chaotic arbiters, CG demons and LE archons.
Second outsider question: It seems as though virtually any CR≤2 outsider that's Small or smaller can be used as a familiar. Can you confirm this?
(EDIT: just realized those first two can be connected through my desire to play a magus instead of my usual summoner in PFS. Finesse'd tiefling with a tripurasura familiar? Do want!)
And finally, the ability question. Apparently, vampires can create spawn through energy drain, but nothing in the ability's description says that it can kill or cause Con damage. How does that work?
1) Yes, it's possible, but it's very rare. We'll have at LEAST one such NPC featured prominently in the Wrath of the Righteous AP in fact.
2) Most races of outsider have a CR 2 familiar option, but not all CR 2 outsiders can be familiars.
3) A vampire uses her blood drain ability to cause Con damage. Both this attack and her energy drain can kill (if your Con damage equals your actual Con, or if your negative levels equal your actual level). She doesn't HAVE to create spawn out of those she drains to max level with her energy drain, but if she wants to create spawn, she has to do so via energy drain.
The bestiary said that she could create spawn through either the blood drain OR the energy drain.
On a related note, how does energy drain function against creatures without class levels?
|
Creative Director
|
The bestiary said that she could create spawn through either the blood drain OR the energy drain.
On a related note, how does energy drain function against creatures without class levels?
Ah; that's right. Either works to create spawn, but she can choose not to create spawn and just let the victim die.
Energy drain doesn't actually drain class levels. Remember, it just adds a negative level that makes a lot of the bonuses you've gained as you level up be increasingly penalized. For normal PCs, your class level is equal to your Hit Dice, so it's often a shortcut to use those two concepts as synonyms when talking about how many negative levels it takes to kill someone.
In fact, it's a creature's HIT DICE that matter in determining how many negative levels they can take before they're slain.
While I'm thinking about it, are there any manufactured weapons that work like claws? Like Wolverine-claw type weapons.
Edit: RAPID FIRE QUESTIONS WHEE
Anyway, what can the Adopted social trait apply to in Pathfinder society? The seven core and three bonus races, or anything in the ARG?
|
Creative Director
|
I have a few questions that could help Gnolls with fleas (as well as everyone else suffering from the tiny damned things).
1. Are there flea collars or medicine in Golarion?
2. Would they be an alchemical or wondrous item?
3. Is there any spells that might alleviate fleas or any other bug problem?
1) No flea collars. There's alchemical solutions though.
2) Could be both. The alchemical ones are more affordable but not as efficient.
3) Fleas are infestations/parasites, like rot grubs or the like, and as such they're in a weird sort of gray area as far as afflictions. As a general rule, being immune to disease does not make you immune to an infestation, but an infestation can be removed by effects like remove disease. More about infestations appears on page 245 of the GameMastery Guide.
I have some question regarding the summoner's eidolon.
the shadow meld feat says your eidolon gains 20% concealment in any condition other than bright light .
under the vision and light rules it says that torches and continual flame spells act as bright light from ranges of 0 to 20 ft and 20 to 40 feet as dim light .
But anyone in dim light gains 20% concealment already .
It seems the eidolon feat dose not work in torch light and has you pay 2 evolution points to get the same benefit you already receive by standing in dim light . is this how it really works ?
Also under shadow form it says the eidolon's melee attacks only deal half damage to corporeal beings is this natural attacks or includes all melee weapons you equip your eidolon with and dose it also apply to ranged weapons ?
One last one if you have shadow meld and shadow form dose the ability to turn off shadow meld also apply to shadow form ( can you turn both off as a free action or just shadow meld ) ?
and thanks for any answers
|
Creative Director
|
While I'm thinking about it, are there any manufactured weapons that work like claws? Like Wolverine-claw type weapons.
Edit: RAPID FIRE QUESTIONS WHEE
Anyway, what can the Adopted social trait apply to in Pathfinder society? The seven core and three bonus races, or anything in the ARG?
There are weapons like that, but they don't work exactly like claws, which are natural attacks.
The Adopted trait only lets you take a race trait from a race you are not a member of. Where you get that race trait doesn't matter, as long as it's approved for play in PFS.
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Does flung poo count as a splash weapon or a light thrown weapon, or is this contingent on diet within past 24-48 hours?
Would Spicy food add +1 acid or +1 fire damage?
...each sewer goblin is armed... with a pair of burlap pouches filled with night soil and broken glass. These are improvised weapons that need only a touch attack to strike a foe—on a hit, the broken glass deals 1 point of damage and the target becomes sickened for 1d6 rounds (a successful DC 12 Fortitude save reduces this duration to 1 round). On a successful critical hit, the goblin hits his target in the face, blinding the target for 1 round.
Spicy food wouldn't do much at all; if the poop does acid or fire damage, I would think that it would have done a lot more to the poor soul producing the ammo in the first place.
Adding exposure to filth fever or typhoid or other diseases is the best way to up the CR of thrown poop.
I just answered poop questions as part of my job. Ha.
|
Creative Director
|
I have some question regarding the summoner's eidolon.
the shadow meld feat says your eidolon gains 20% concealment in any condition other than bright light .
under the vision and light rules it says that torches and continual flame spells act as bright light from ranges of 0 to 20 ft and 20 to 40 feet as dim light .
But anyone in dim light gains 20% concealment already .
It seems the eidolon feat dose not work in torch light and has you pay 2 evolution points to get the same benefit you already receive by standing in dim light . is this how it really works ?
Also under shadow form it says the eidolon's melee attacks only deal half damage to corporeal beings is this natural attacks or includes all melee weapons you equip your eidolon with and dose it also apply to ranged weapons ?
One last one if you have shadow meld and shadow form dose the ability to turn off shadow meld also apply to shadow form ( can you turn both off as a free action or just shadow meld ) ?
and thanks for any answers
Sounds like a great set of questions to post to the rules forums for clarification and FAQ opportunity; the shadow meld feat certainly doesn't sound like it really actually does anything other than keep creatures with low-light vision from enjoying their low-light vision benefit against eidolons in low light.
Hi James.
1)Core bard and Bard archetypes included, what are your top 3 or 4 bards? BTW, I’ve just recently discovered the Dawnflower Dervish bard and I just love it.2) With so many great Bard archetypes out there, I feel the Core bard could do with a bit of love. If I were to boost it a bit in a homegame what advice can you give me? Basically, if you would change/boost it somewhat, what would you do?
1) Probably the Dawnflower dervish, daredevil, and the plain-old core bard. Of course... having been the designer of the Dawnflower dervish... I'm hardly an impartial fan there...
2) If you mean "boost its power," then I think the best way to do that is to either give them more skill points or more spells, but if you give them more spells, keep in mind that it's easy to make them stop feeling like bards. One thing that I do for bards in my game that's a slight boost to the core concept is that whenever a bard achieves a new Versatile Performance, I let the player completely re-assign their skill ranks.
If you mean "boost its options," that's basically the whole point of archetypes.
Thanks for the answers.
I feel the Core bard, compared to some bard archetypes and even compared to the other hybrid classes, Magus, Alchemist and inquisitor, lacks a bit of Ompf past level 8 or so. No really new buff abilities, no bonus feats, etc.Re-assign their skill ranks sound rock solid. I’m gonna use that advice :-)
1) What do you mean by “give them more spells”? More bard spells know or more slots or add more spells to the bard spell list?
2) I concider giving it New Arcana and/or Metamagic Adept from the Arcne sorcerer bloodline. Would that be too powerful?